Obsession
by een nihc
Summary: “She is mine.” In which obsession leads Baki to insanity and from insanity to his destruction. AU


**Obsession**

Synopsis: "She is mine." In which obsession leads Baki to insanity and from insanity to his destruction. AU because this will never happens in the canon story. It was solely a product of my wild imagination and probably some influences from Gollum in LOTR. lol

---

Baki leaned over to inspect the body on the roof. It was a full moon night, allowing him to see fairly well under the moonlight. That boy was definitely dead. Young, talented but dead. Just before Baki prepared to leave after making sure that he left no traces behind, something caught his eyes – the sword that the boy wielded was lying quietly not far away from its master.

There was something about the way its blade reflected the moonlight that caused him to pause momentarily. Its metal surface shone like quicksilver with a tint of icy blue, beckoning him to take a closer look. Defying all logics, Baki soon found himself picking up the sword and appraised it. Even Baki who normally had no taste for esthetic appreciated its fine craftsmanship – the sword was in perfect balance, its edge razor sharp, the hilt was made solid and provided a firm grip.

It even had its own name carved on its blade. _Tsume._ Perfect.

Baki immediately jerked from his trance and turned sharply when he heard a thud behind him. His stance was switched to attack mode in a blink of eye. And the sword was already pointed towards the enemy's neck before he had a good look of who was it.

"Nice sword," the grey haired ninja smirked, unfazed by the blade pressed against his neck.

It was none other than Kabuto. Baki turned away the blade slowly, still wary of the ninja that stood before him. Kabuto seemed to ignore him completely and stared at the body indifferently.

"Hn, if it wasn't Mr. Examiner… Oh well, what is done cannot be undone. Anyway, no Leaf ninja can come between our plans." Kabuto pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose casually.

"By the way, that sword wasn't yours, was it?"

"It is now."

Kabuto looked a little amused by Baki's answer but he said nothing and disappeared in a puff. Baki scowled. As he leaped from the roof and carefully blended himself in the darkness, the unfamiliar weight was still on his back. In his head, he could hear two voices debating.

"_It isn't yours."_

"It is now."

"_You don't need a sword."_

"No, I just want to have it."

---

That night, Baki had sealed the sword in a scroll. And he didn't mention a word about it during the journey back to the Sand. Besides Kabuto, Baki recalled with frustration, it was only for him to know. Now and then when no one was noticing, he would check on the left side of his flak jacket to reassure himself the scroll was still there. That was until he finally got back to his village where he could find the safest place to keep it.

Since then, every night he would summon Tsume from the scroll (he preferred to call it Tsume now, _his_ Tsume). Everything about her was perfect. Perfect. He could spend the rest of the night just admiring her beauty.

"_How would you know it was a she?" _

"I didn't. She told me."

"_She told you?" _

"Yes, yes. She talks to me."

"_She talks? A sword doesn't talk."_

"Shut up! What do you know?"

Then suddenly there was a knock at the door that snapped him out of his trance. "Baki senpai, is everything alright?" the ninja knocked again when he heard no response. "Sir?"

"I'm fine." Baki opened the door just wide enough to show his face.

"But I thought I heard you yelling at someone."

"You thought wrong." He cut him off promptly.

"Perhaps, I'm sorry, sir."

Baki shut the door again.

"He wanted to seize me away from you." A female's voice whispered softly to him.

"I won't let him." Baki replied darkly.

---

The next day, the Sand village was in uproar when a corpse was found pinned on a wall, headless. It took a while before they could identify the body. Many speculated that the murder was committed by their enemy because the one who got killed was a ninja. There was no evident or weapon found related to that murder and it became an unsolved case.

And then there were more bodies found. The numbers kept rising alarmingly. There was no specific pattern of the victims: male and female, old and young, even children. When they did figure out the culprit, it was already too late. He was finishing his last victim.

"Don't you dare to lay a finger on her! Don't you even dare to stare at her!" The mad man yelled as he stabbed the lifeless woman at his feet again and again. Blood splattered to his twisted face and stained the cloth he wore to cover half of his face.

"Ba-Baki sama!"

Shock, horror and misbelieve filled the chunin who first arrived in time to witness the gruesome scene. That poor boy's knees buckled when Baki's bloodshot eyes turned and glared at him. His eyes widened when he saw a strange wind began to form a tornado and advanced towards him. Fortunately, a sand wall emerged just in time to shield him from the attack. The Kazekage himself and more reinforcement had come to his aid. That boy could barely contain his fear anymore - he hung his head and threw up.

"Step aside, everyone. He is no longer the Baki that we know any more. Sabaku kyuu!" The Kazekage effectively immobilized Baki with his sand wrapping around Baki like a cocoon. Gaara narrowed his eyes as he watched his former sensei yelled angrily and struggled to break free from his sand.

"Why did you do it?" Gaara asked indifferently.

"You can't take her away from me! She's mine! Mine!"

Gaara averted his gaze to the body on the sand.

"No, not her. Her…" Baki's eyes suddenly softened and laced with a strange fondness as he laid his eyes on his sword that was lying on the sand.

It didn't take long for Gaara to put two and two together. He had no further doubt that his teacher's mind had descended into madness.

"That is just a sword, Baki."

"She's my Tsume-hime…"

"Take the sword away."

"No, no! No one can take her away from me!" Baki snapped when a ninja obliged to the Kazekage's order and picked up the sword. His eyes were wild with rage as he yelled, "Don't you dare-"

Without another word, Gaara tightened the sand grip around Baki and knocked him out. Then he slowly laid the unconscious man to the ground.

---

A month later, in the mental hospital, a man who was bounded by a special shirt where its sleeves were sewn together mumbled to himself repeatedly like a broken recorder.

"What is the colour of blood? Silver. What is the colour of blood? Silver. What is…"

-The END.

A/N: "Tsume" means claw in japanese, I think. Well, I just couldn't really get over the fact that Baki got away with killing Hayate. : P


End file.
